1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for improving the printed form of images. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for automatically calibrating print paths having image capture devices, such as scanners.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a model of a document preparation system (DPS). The DPS has a scanner 104, or some other input capture device (ICD). The DPS also has monitors 108, a printer driver, and a printer. The monitors 108 may represent the same physical monitor.
In operation, an operator uses the scanner 104 to input an original document 102. The original document 102 may be either in color or black and white. Associated with the scanner 104 is scanner software. The scanner 104 and scanner software convert the original document 102 into a digital image. This conversion is represented by a transfer function 106A. The transfer function 106A modifies and in some cases distorts the digital image from a perfect representation of the original document 102.
The scanner software may contain routines for generating an intermediate representation of the digital image for display on the monitor 108A. This generation is represented by a transfer function 106B. The transfer function 106B may further distort the digital image.
The monitor 108A itself modifies the digital image. Such modification is required to display the digital image on the monitor 108A and is represented by a transfer function 106C. The transfer function 106C may further distort the digital image.
The digital image is subject to interpretation and modification by the software and hardware components of the DPS. Such software and hardware components include image editors, desktop publishing packages (DTP), printer drivers, printers, and copiers. These software and hardware components modify the digital image. Such modification is represented by transfer functions 106D-106K. The transfer functions 106D-106K may further distort the digital image.
The DPS produces a final document 114. Ideally, the final document 114 contains a perfect representation of the original document 102. However, because the transfer functions 106 may distort the digital image, the final document 114 often does not contain a perfect representation of the original document 102.
Therefore, problems exist when original documents 102 are scanned into a DPS to produce final documents 114, because transfer functions 106 associated with the DPS may distort the original documents 102 such that the final documents 114 do not contain a perfect representation of the original documents 102.